A N D ENGINEEKIA,rG C H E M I S T R ~ . rapid advancement and high salaries. For the young man who is content to remain in the laboratory a t the routine practice of analyses and thinks the dye-house is too nasty a place to work in, there is seldom any place beyond twelve to fifteen dollars a meek salary. For the other kind of man, however, his future is only limited by his personal initiative and energy. J. M. XATTHEWS. ORGANIZATION FOR ROUTINE WORK.
No more careful and painstaking work is required in any branch of chemistry than in the design and organization of the laboratory which turns out large numbers of routine analyses, requiring skill and accuracy, in a short period of time. On such control analyses the successful operation of innumerable large industries depends and the more accurate the work and the more rapidly it is turned out, the better the control will be. I t appears that any chemist of average ability can make one or a small number of analyses and report reasonably correct results. But with the multiplication of samples and the making of hundreds or thousands of analyses, it appears almost unavoidable that a certain percentage of incorrect results are reported. In the abstract one might expect that the more samples analyzed, or the more determinations made the less would be the chance for error in any individual case. Practically this is seldom true. The steel-works laboratory probably takes first rank as a routine laboratory and will continue to do so, but the fertilizer laboratory has become a close second on account of the immense increase in fertilizer manufacture. I n these laboratories, the organization for routine work has reached a rare degree of refinement, but perfection and even a perfectly satisfactory condition of affairs has not yet been attained. The average chemist, upon leaving college, looks upon routine work as a thing t o be shunned or a t most as a line of work to be followed only temporarily, and used as a means to other ends. Great emphasis has been laid on this view of the case recently by college professors and industrial chemists. It is needless to say that there is a posssibility if not a danger of overemphasizing this side of the argument. Let us pause for a moment t o say a good word for the skilful, painstaking analyst whose results can be relied upon for the control of large manufactures. I n spite of the view taken of routine chemical work b y the profession a t the present time, such work is highly appreciated by at least one man-the works manager or superintendent. We believe that as time goes on this sort of work will receive greater recompense than it does now, recompense more in pr,oportion to its importance in the operation and control of great industries. I n passing we may say that whatever our views on the subject may be, we can be permitted t o admire the excellent equipment, organization and management of such a routine laboratory, as the nitrogen laboratory in the Bureau of Chemistry a t Washington. I t is a pleasure t o inspect this laboratory and t o see
Peb., 1911
under what satisfactory conditions routine work can be conducted. THE FERTILIZER INDUSTRY.
The steady and consistent growth of the fertilizer industry and the greatly increased use of fertilizers during recent years indicate a very large future for this branch of manufacture. The new soils in this country have for the most part been taken up-many farms have been used up,” many farms abandoned. As the old farmer explained t o the Professor of Agriculture who was lecturing in his district: “ Y o u can’t tell me anything about farming. I’ve used up three farms.” One of the most important practical facts in regard to the use of fertilizers is that they are used chiefly in the older settled parts of the country and where the same crop is raised year after year. Be the explanation what it may, the facts and the experience of many different individuals appear incontrovertible. The tendency now appears to be toward an increased use of fertilizers even on the newer soils, and all must agree that this tendency is a wholesome one. I n the meantime the large fertilizer manufacturers are constructing factory after factory and mixing plant after mixing plant and the growth in output year by year is enormous. The old and tried sources of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the ones chiefly drawn on for the increased consumption. In spite of the agitation for raw phosphate rock as a source of phosphorus, acid phosphate continues to be the principal phosphatic fertilizer. Air-nitrates and cyanamide are making headway slowly on account of the large supply of Chili saltpeter. Conservationists have issued a warning on the subject, but there appears to be no immediate danger of a shortage in the supply of fertilizer raw materials. The large increase in the use of commercial fertilizers is the more interesting, because of the fact that there has been a corresponding large increase in the use of green crops, legumes and barn-yard manure on the farm. The increased use of conimercial fertilizers has come in addition t o a largely increased use of the natural fertilizer resources of the farm. We are, beyond question, progressing gradually toward permanent systems of agriculture. INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH.
Since the first metallurgist, by making such simple tests as were in his power, investigated the suitability of various earths for making iron, or since the ancient Egyptian glass-maker examined various alkaline salts which might be adapted t o his art, industrial chemical research has ever been the guiding light of chemical industry. Called by various names a t various times, whether it rested upon ungeneralized empirical knowledge, or whether through the vitalizing force of science, it assumed the voice of prophecy, fundamentally it has always been the same. Like the pillar of fire of old its purposes has been t o lead and guide. It has guided all-conquering industry out of the bondage of tradition and led it from goal t o
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H A L L A N D ON CRYOLITE A N D I T S I N D U S T R I A L APPLICATIONS goal and conquest to conquest until the observer, with any knowledge of the history of industry, can scarcely conjecture whither the next advance will lead. This progress can not properly be compared to finite geographical explorations and discoveries ; it is more like the exploration of space and the infinite worlds of space. The chemical investigator connected with the industries has been likened to the exciter on an electric generator, while the superintendent or works manager, the driving force, has been compared to the generator itself. There appears to be much truth expressed in the simile. Each is necessary for the development of the power required t o operate the plant. There is an implied truth also apparent, namely, that the scientific imagination is not usually accompanied by the capacity to organize and to operate a large industry. The present age is one of industrial transition, wherein the scientific man is beginning to have a more prominent place in industry than previously. That he does not come t o the front more rapidly and take the place to which he believes he is entitled is sometimes a cause for complaint on his part. However, it has been demonstrated again and again, that so far as the mere traditional operation of a plant is concerned, the accumulated experience of years or hundreds of years, is of more value than the theoretical contributions of the scientific man. The chemist, for example, must usually spend a number of years in studying present-day practice in an industry, before he can really be of much service to t h a t industry. The training of most superintendents and works managers is such that the development of their imagination is neglected or retarded. They lack the imagination necessary to carry the operations of their factories beyond present-day practice. On the other hand, the college-trained chemist usually has too much imagination and too little common sense and knowledge of present-day practice. Possibly, also, he has too little desire to investigate thoroughly present-day practice before undertaking to revolutionize it, and herein are the sources of the eternal conflict between the practical man, educated by experience, and the college-educated man. Once in a blue moon comes the chemical engineer-that rare combination of chemical and engineering instincts. And rarer yet is the college-trained man who makes a satisfactory chemist, engineer and superintendent. Most plants must be satisfied now and probably in the future with a separation of these offices, and perhaps the highest results may be accomplished by a proper coordination of the work of chemist, engineer and superintendent. Whatever the solution of the much tortured question, industrial research will go on, Such research may be far removed from immediate application. As Dr. W. A. Noyes has suggested, Kekulk’s ring formula for benzene lies a t the bottom of much of the coaltar industry. Or it may directly start into being a new industry, like Acheson’s discovery of carbowndum. Again i t may result in improving or revolution-
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king the old methods of an industry, like Bessemer’s discoveries in steel-making. To foster such work in every possible way and to spread among scientific co-workers and mankind generally the knowledge of such inventions is the best work that a scientific society can perform.
--_--CRYOLITE AND ITS INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS.’ By ALFREDS HALLAND. Received December 1, 1910.
While the mineral cryolite has become almost indispensable in certain branches of the chemical industry, yet it cannot be called one of the important minerals in a commercial sense. It is, however, of interest in a chemical and geological sense. In the following paper the writer will try to outline its general characteristics, its applications in the arts, and finally the methods used in bringing it from its crude state into the almost chemically pure condition in which it is brought on the market. I . Source.-The only place in the world where cryolite has been found in considerable quantities is a t Ivigtut, an esquimaux hamlet on the southern coast of Greenland a t 61’ northern latitude. Minerals of a similar composition have been found a t Pike’s Peak, Colo., but not in quantities to pay mining. Cryolite was first introduced to the scientific world about the *year 1800. The esquimaux a t Ivigtut had for centuries back known and valued the beautiful white mineral; they used to grind it and use it for snuff. The first imperfect analysis of i t was made by the Danish chemist, Abildgaard, who gave it as containing acid of fluorspar, alum and some plant ash (potash). Its true constitution as a double salt of sodium fluoride and aluminum fluoride, sNaF.AlF,, was first established by the analysis made by tierzelius in I 823. The first crystallographic description of the mineral was given by the Portuguese mineralogist, D’Andrada e Silva; he gave to the mineral its present name, cryolite, which is Greek for ice stone, because pieces of cryolite when viewed under water show a strong resemblance to ice. The crystal form is monoclinic and the hardness relatively low, 2 . 5 . Cryolite is difficultly soluble in water (about I :3000)but quite soluble in warm solutions of aluminum salts, preferably aluminum chloride. This furnishes an excellent means of separating it analytically from quartz. When finely powdered cryolite is stirred in water it appears to dissolve therein ; this is due to the fact t h a t cryolite has almost the same refractory index as water. In its natural state cryolite is more or less heavily intermixed with other minerals, mostly ironspar (siderite), zinc blende, galena, chalcopyrite and hagemannite. The color of the cryolite itself is generally a pure white but sometimes smoke-colored pieces are found, and it never fails that in the smokecolored parts are found well-developed crystals of red fluorspar. This red fluorspar was first examined by Julius Thomsen, who obtained interesting results. He found that it contained a small quantity of yttrium 1 Paper read before the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society a t the University of Buffalo, N ~ 3, ~1910. .
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